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2000s: Can you see danger when it’s a little too close to home?
Close to Home
What you need to know before your trail
Seattle homicide detective Tracy Crosswhite investigates the hit-and-run death of a young boy, and discovers that the suspect is an active-duty serviceman at a local naval base. He’s cleared of charges in a military court, but that’s only when a key piece of case evidence goes missing. Tracy thinks that there is a lot more to this case and can’t let it go.
When she uncovers the driver’s ties to a rash of recent heroin overdoses in the city, she realizes that this isn’t just a case of the military protecting its own. It runs much deeper than that
The accused didn’t appear to be acting alone. Suddenly for Tracy, it’s all hitting very close to home.
Travel Guide
Seattle
Seattle is a changing city
“Tracy Crosswhite had read in some magazine that the Smith Tower in Seattle’s Pioneer Square had once been the tallest building west of the Mississippi. Now, the building wasn’t even in Seattle’s top thirty, and its significance was largely historic. The city was rapidly changing, and not necessarily for the better.
Seattle was headed for a record year for homicides”
The navy setting
The Navy’s involvement in Tracy’s case gives a welcome insight into how the military legal system works when a service member is accused of a civilian crime. The action moves over to Bremerton which was an island located west of Seattle and goes into the heart of the Military world of the United States:
Bremerton was accessed by ferry across Puget Sound, which took about an hour, or by driving south and cutting across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which took an hour and a half”
“Bremerton was also home to one of the largest naval shipyards in the United States.”
This is a place where the public rarely see or hear about but it’s a place they trust and value so when the security of that seems to have been breached, worries start to spread. The police in the novel liken the base to something of The Truman Show – it is isolated and “creepy the way everything is perfect”
Streetview Maps
B) Seattle - Chief Sealth Trail - where the victim walked
F) Seattle - Navy Base
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
Two stories which merge to form a cracking police thriller. I’d not read a Dugoni before and whilst I do think I’ve had got more from the novel if I’d read the previous ones, this did read like a standalone. I would like to know more about Tracy’s background and where she came from on all levels and whilst there are hints to her past and problems, the scars which appear here are interesting to say the least.
This is an interesting read on so many levels – the military and civilian world clash in spectacular fashion. Seattle is portrayed and evoke well and all the little details from the scene of the crime to the bar are real and this makes it a great deal more interesting for a novel like this! There were mentions of JG and NCIS which did get me picturing the TV series I have to say. Gibbs has problems then!
The underbelly of the city is more than graphically evolved evoked with the scourge of drugs and addiction plastered all over in graphic details. The real world of how drugs and addition affects people from all walks of life, put the humanity into this vile trade.
It’s definitely got me interested in looking up Dugoni again.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Close to Home
Destination: Seattle Author/Guide: Robert Dugoni Departure Time: 2000s
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